Harold Wilson calls referendum on Britain’s membership of the Common Market. Interview with Anthony Wedgewood Benn. BBC News theme. Majority of British vote to remain in Common Market.

I’m Not in Love – 10cc

Assassination attempt on President Ford. Foreign Secretary Jim Callaghan flies to Uganda to prevent execution of British lecturer Denis Hills.

Dreamer – Supertramp

Apollo-Soyuz link-up. Laker Airways launch Skytrain

Rhiannon – Fleetwood Mac

Newsbeat interview with Alex Hughes, aka Judge Dread

Big Six – Judge Dread

Magic Roundabout – Jasper Carrott

Funky Gibbon – the Goodies

Jive Talkin’ – the Bee Gees

Third Cod War begins

Sailing – Rod Stewart

Chris Drake reports from Lebanese Civil War

Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen

Inflation in Britain

It was very clever the way that they used Bohemian Rhapsody to bookend this programme. Bohemian Rhapsody was really the climax of mid-seventies pop music.This is the only programme in the series to feature the BBC New theme, when it was used for the referendum results. The biggest news story was the end of the Vietnam War. Other big news stories were the Apollo-Soyuz link-up, and Margaret Thatcher becoming Conservative Party leader.

There’s a good selection of records in this programme (although the Tammy Wynette song was recorded long before 1975, but it did get rereleased and got to number one that year). There are some innovative records, the Bee Gees brought disco music into the mainstream, Kraftwerk were pioneers of electronic music. David Bowie had a change of image and musical style. And of course it was the year of the Bay City Rollers. By the time this programme was repeated in 1981 No Woman No Cry had been in the charts again as a tribute to Bob Marley.

There was a trio of comedy records by Judge Dread, Jasper Carrot and the Goodies. Richard Skinner said it was going to be Radio 1’s only broadcast of Judge Dread’s Big Six, but it wasn’t because they repeated it on 25 Years of Rock.

When this programme was first broadcast 1976 was the start of the current era. Margaret Thatcher was already Conservative Party leader, Jim Callaghan became Labour leader and prime minister, David Steele became the Liberal Party leader, and Jimmy Carter was elected President of the United States. And it was the start of the punk explosion, the last truly original youth cult and the most outrageous, which paved the way for the then current rock scene.

So It Goes wasn’t a big hit at the time, but it was the first record on Nick Lowe’s own Stiff Records label which would play an important part in the punk/new wave scene.Convoy was almost a forgotten record by 1980, and I don’t think Loudon Wainwright’s response to the American bicentenary celebrations had been heard much in the UK. But much of the music in this programme consists of ‘safe’ acts such as Abba, Chicago, the Eagles, Elton John and Kiki Dee.

Rather incongruously New Rose by the Damned appears somewhere in the middle of the programme, but it should have been the second to last record. The programme ends with Radio 1’s interview with the Sex Pistols and the third record that changed everything forever.

Scotland win British Home Championship. Football hooligans invade pitch.

Mull of Kintyre – Wings

The programme begins with Fleetwood Mac and ends with Wings, so punk didn’t change everything. There is punk from the Clash, the Stranglers and the Adverts. (Surprisingly there are no interviews with punks, as they did with teddy boys, mods and rockers in the fifties and sixties programmes.) There was already new wave music coming out of the punk scene, with Ian Dury and Elvis Costello, and there are some rarities like Jonathan Richman’s Road Runner and Devo’s version of I Can’t Get No Satisfaction. Disco music was also popular.

But once again the highpoint of the programme is the Sex Pistols. God Save the Queen was banned by the BBC in 1977, but three years later it was included on 25 Years of Rock.God Save the Queen leads neatly into the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, when everyone looked back at the fifties, sixties and seventies. When Jimmy Carter became president of the USA it was as much a breath of fresh air as President Kennedy’s presidency sixteen years earlier. 1977 was also the year of the skateboarding craze.

The news stories in these programmes aren’t played in chronological order. For example Elvis Presley (who I don’t think had even been mentioned since the 1961 programme) died in August 1977, Marc Bolan died in September, and the Lynard Skynard plane crash was in October, but in the radio programme they left Elvis Presley’s death until last because it was the biggest news story.

Nottingham Forrest win Football League. Argentina win World Cup. Willie Johnston sent home from World Cup, and banned from playing for Scotland after failing drug test. Michael Parkinson interviews Geoff Boycott. Steve Ovett wins gold medal at European Championships

It’s 1978 and punk’s not dead. Some punk groups, such as Sham 69, made their breakthrough after the main punk explosion. The programme begins with Rat Trap by the Boomtown Rats, but it should have been the last record as the first new wave record to get to number one actually topped the charts towards the end of the year. Other new wave acts who made their breakthrough in 1978 included Blondie and the Police.

As well as obvious classic pops songs like Wuthering Heights (which should have been the first record played) and Baker Street, there are some ephemeral records by Jilted John, the Rutles and the Smurfs.

One of the most memorable events of 1978 was the murder of the Italian prime minister Aldo Moro, but surprisingly that wasn’t included in the programme. Neither was the death of Keith Moon.

1978 is remembered as the year that we had three popes. We hear the news report about the election of Pope John Paul I, and then after the next record we hear the news of his death. This was also the year of the Camp David Agreement. And three years after the end of the Vietnam War the repercussions were still being felt.

Interview with Debbie Harry. Police receive message from man claiming to be the Yorkshire Ripper

My Sharona – the Knack

Iranian students hold staff at American Embassy as hostages Soviet Union Invade Afghanistan

Ayatollah – Steve Dahl

Ayatollah Khomeini bans western pop music

Another Brick in the Wall – Pink Floyd

Various quotes from the past twenty-five years

Rock Around the Clock – Bill Haley and the Comets

(The selection of quotes and the reprise of Rock Around the Clock were omitted from the 1985 repeat.)

When this programme was first broadcast this was the music and events from last year.

It was the year that the new wave finally got into the mainstream, and most of the records featured are records which got into the upper reaches of the charts and are still well remembered.

Somewhat incongruously the second record played, Brass in Pocket by the Pretenders, was a number one hit early in 1980. (If the series had been made later Brass in Pocket would probably have been included in the 1980 programme.) Two-tone music was big in 1980, and this programme includes early hits by Madness and the Specials. So the last episode of 25 Years of Rock really was up to date with the current pop scene.

This the last programme in the series to feature cinema newsreel clips, British Movietone News stopped making them in 1979.

There are two stories that stand out. Firstly there’s the tape from a man claiming to be the Yorkshire Ripper. When Peter Sutcliffe was caught it turned out that the message was a hoax. And the other story is Anthony Blunt being exposed as a spy. In the first programme there was a clip of Kim Philby denying that he was part of the same spy ring, so the first programme had a news story from twenty-five years ago and the last programme had a related story from last year.

In 1955 American and Russian scientists were planning the first space satellite, in 1979 Skylab returned to Earth. In 1955 there were nuclear tests in Nevada, in 1979 there was a nuclear accident at Three Mile Island. In 1955 Eisenhower met Krushchev at a summit in Geneva, in 1979 Carter and Brezhnev signed a treaty in Vienna. In 1955 Juan Peron was ousted, in 1979 the Shah of Iran was ousted. In 1955 Winston Churchill resigned, in 1979 Margaret Thatcher became prime minister.

Two of the last stories in the programme were the Iranian hostage crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The latter led to the United States boycotting the 1980 Olympics which took place while 25 Years of Rock was being broadcast, and both event played against Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election.

The programme plays out with Another Brick in the Wall (album version) and a creaky recording of Rock Around the Clock.

25 Years of Rock still stands up very well. My only criticism is the various records and events which were omitted, but then they did only have an hour to include what they did.

The series proved popular enough for Radio 1 to give it a repeat run in 1981, but then the programme was dated in as much as it now only went up to two years ago. However there was an updated version of the series a few years later ….

7 thoughts on “25 Years of Rock – 1975 – 1979”

My thanks to the moderator for putting this article up for me. (And for fans of eighties pop music, I didn’t forget about the five extra programmes that made up 30 Years of Rock.)

I wrote the articles, but the illustrations were provided by the moderator.

It’s a shame the moderator couldn’t get hold of the pictures that appeared in Radio Times for 21-27 June 1980 in the article about 25 Years of Rock. (I don’t know if there are an Radio Times collectors here who have that issue.) They picked one year from each half decade, and one of the most influential pop singer or group of that time. They had illustrations of the events of 1956 and Elvis Presley, 1963 and the Beatles, 1967 and Jimi Hendrix, 1972 and David Bowie, and 1977 and the Sex Pistols.

Unfortunately this was before Radio Times was a full colour magazine, and only the Hendix and Bowie pictures were printed in colour. I don’t know if the original paintings exist anywhere. But this was when tv listings magazines were tv listings magazines.

My recollection was that it was more New Wave/Mod revival/Two Tone/Rockabilly revival in the late seventies than Punk. HM was still a thing too, so it’s fair to say that you could pick and choose which movement to follow – there was plenty of choice …